I would say that it depends on two factors. 1 How complicated are your taxes and 2) how reliable is the tax software. First of all, you should know that the cost of the tax software is tax deductible. The government realizes that tax laws are very complicated. Therefore, they allow us tax payers to deduct the cost of having someone or something else figure it all out for us. So, it is really not the cost of the software itself that determines if it is a wise investment. Now then, I will be write from my personal experience. I have had both simple and complex tax situations. I have filled out my own tax forms and use software. When I have used software, I used TurboTax. I used it twice because those two years I was an independent contractor. So, I had very complex taxes. TurboTax asked question that guided me through the process of preparing my taxes. I shudder at the effort it would have taken me to navigate my way through this process with out it. The first year I used TurboTax it worked quite well for me. The second year, it failed to transfer an important bit of data from one form to another. So, I had to go back in and manually figure how to correct it from there. (My dad had also had some very bad experiences a couple of earlier versions of TurboTax.) I have since ceased being an independent contractor and am now employed by someone else. This has vastly simplified my taxes. I am back to the point of being able to use the 1040-EZ form. I can fill this form out in about the same amount of time as it would take me to use tax preparation software to do the same job. So, now it is not worth the hassle of obtaining and installing the software to do my taxes. So, you have to look at your personal situation and decide for your self if tax prep software is worth it. If you do choose to use it, then make sure that you double check the final forms before you send them off to the IRS to make sure that they are indeed filled out correctly. (Part of my head ache came about because I didn't do this. So, it was the IRS that found the error which resulted in more paperwork for me.)